


Tell Me It Gets Better

by The_Hypothesis



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Crying, Drunk Ianto Jones, Established Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Hope, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-03 19:49:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24701101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Hypothesis/pseuds/The_Hypothesis
Summary: Jack comes home to Ianto watching the world news.A short current events reaction story about a drunk Ianto Jones, the fight for trans rights, and a whole lot of love.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 7
Kudos: 59





	Tell Me It Gets Better

Jack dropped his keys in the bowl by Ianto’s front door. He then kicked his boots off while simultaneously taking off his coat and hanging it on the rack. 

“Honey! I’m home!” He said with a laugh, wondering where his welsh lover was waiting for him. He could hear the television on in the next room but most of the lights were still off.

“In here…” Came a soft voice as Jack rounded the corner. 

Ianto stood in his pajama bottoms and a soft shirt, a beer hanging from his hand by his side. He looked over to where Jack stood in the doorway. The light of the television illuminated the tears that were rolling down his face. Jack went immediately into action.

“Ianto! Oh my God, what’s wrong?” He came over and cradled Ianto’s face between his hands.

Ianto’s pupils were shot wide. A night at the local pub, it was then. Jack had stayed behind to help Owen with some things, even though he had sent Ianto home for the evening. Ianto must have stopped by for the rugby game and a few rounds at the dive on the corner. And now here he was crying his heart out in the middle of their living room.

This isn’t the first time Jack has come home to this. Sometimes Ianto would get so knackered at the pub that he would start crying any time those “save the animals” commercials would come on asking for donations while showing sad cats and dogs. It was almost as if he needed those rare moments to lower his stoic walls and just let grief out. Jack was all too familiar with the feeling.

But _this_ … this was something different. Something new was bothering his Ianto, and it didn’t look good at all. In fact, this looked more serious than just a drunken cry in the living room.

Jack looked at the television and read the headline on the bottom of the BBC news.

_Trump Administration Revokes Transgender Civil Rights Protections_

Did he read that correctly? This was the twenty-first century he came back to, right? 

Even though it was news from another country, you didn’t have to work for Torchwood to understand that borders really do mean nothing when it comes to protecting the human race.

He reached down and took Ianto’s bottle of beer from him, putting it on the coffee table behind him. He grabbed Ianto’s hand and laced their fingers together between their hearts and then pulled the younger man into a hug. Ianto finally let go of any reserve and sobbed uncontrollably for a moment. 

Suddenly though, he looked up and placed his other hand on Jack’s cheek.

“Tell me it gets better.” He said. It wasn’t even a question. It was a demand.

“It does, it really does.” Jack promised.

“No, you need to tell me.” Ianto said as he wiped the tears out of his eyes. He reached down to Jack's hand between their chests and wrapped his fingers around the Vortex Manipulator on his wrist.

“You’re the bloody time traveler!” Ianto continued to say through more tears. “This thing is bloody well useless if it can’t tell me that all of this… all of _this shit_ in the world gets better eventually!”

Jack kissed Ianto’s tears on his cheek and chose his next words carefully.

“Look, Ianto… It really does get better. _I’ve seen it_. I know sometimes it feels like time is moving backwards-- especially when things like this happen.” Jack gestured at the television. “It’s going to take time. And it’s going to take a whole lot of fighting. But I promise you, this is a battle that we win.” 

Ianto let out a small, sad sound as he pressed his face back against Jack’s shoulder.

“Where I come from,” Jack continued, “All of this gender stuff-- the labeling, the restrictions, and discrimination-- it doesn’t really exist anymore. Everyone is free to just be unapologetically true to themselves. And it was beautiful. It was _so beautiful._ But we owe it all to everyone now who had to stand up and fight.”

“How come it feels so much easier to take on alien invasions or the world trying to end, than it is to try and understand how some people can be so cruel towards others?" Ianto asked. "Time just feels _so short_ when I’m near you, Jack. I can’t understand how anyone would want to make such a limited _gift_ feel like such a struggle for someone else, just because they have the power.”

“It’s exactly that, it’s _power_. And power is driven by fear, and solitude, and hate. So you want to know how we win this? I'll tell you how it happens. We win by not being afraid. We don’t let others feel loneliness, because we're all in this together. And we love, love, _love_. We love so much and so hard, that there’s no room left for anything else. You got that?” Jack asked with a small smile, tears finding a way to his own eyes.

“Yeah, I can do that.” Ianto said in an affirmation. 

Jack kissed him again. He kissed Ianto with all the love he’s ever felt in the universe.

“It’s going to get better.”

**Author's Note:**

> This story was written as a prompt fulfillment for the Pride Month Event on the Ianto Jones Cult Discord, Week #2. Jack Harkness doesn't like labels though, so I had to accommodate.
> 
> Also, everyone is still alive at Torchwood in 2020 in my imagination, lol.


End file.
